[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] baptists and lutherans

[Jerry Frank]

I've been away for a week so am just now catching up on this topic 
thread by adding to Dave's comment.

Though he and others have had little success with finding their 
ancestors in Lutheran records, others have.  There were those German 
Baptists who migrated typically from the Lodz and Suwalki regions to 
the district north of Pulin in Volhynia.  As Dave says, these people 
would almost never be found in Lutheran records.

However, there were also those Baptists who converted from Lutheran 
in Volhynia.  With such families you might find success in Lutheran 
records.  Suppose you great grandfather Gustav was born in 1873 and 
the family converted in 1875.  Your knowledge of the family indicates 
the family was always Baptist when in fact Gustav's birth and infant 
baptism would be recorded in the Lutheran Church.  Similarly, one 
branch of the family may have converted while another didn't.  If you 
have enough details, you may be able to make the association and use 
Lutheran records to track back the other branch of the family.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca




At 10:34 PM 26/02/2008, Dave Obee wrote:
>You will find an
>occasional entry for a Baptist in the Lutheran records, but only if the
>Baptists involved chose to go to the Lutheran church at that time, for
>whatever reason. So far, in my extended Baptist family in Volhynia, I
>have found precisely one reference in the St. Petersburg Lutheran
>records.
>
>The Lutherans were not keeping track of the Baptists
>any more than the Baptists were keeping track of the Lutherans. And
>since you are not likely to find births in Baptist records, it would be
>strange indeed for the Baptists to register births with the Lutherans.
>The Baptists in Volhynia were devout, and not likely to toss away their
>beliefs on a whim.
>
>There is some confusion about this. Even the
>people at the Zhitomir archives have assured me with a straight face
>that the Baptists are found in the Lutheran records. And I assured them
>right back that they were wrong.
>
>Dave Obee
>